John Thompson is a historian and a retired teacher, who blogs often, here and on other blogs. He has keen insight into what’s happening in Oklahoma.
He writes:
Since 2015, the Tulsa Public Schools have cut $22 million from its budget, even dipping into its reserve fund to balance the books. Now it must cut another $20 million.
Given the huge support for the TPS by local and national edu-philanthropists, patrons should ask why it faces such a crisis, even after the state has started to restore funding. Despite the assistance of the outcome-driven Billionaires Boys Club, the TPS has lost 5,000 students, especially to the suburbs and online charters. But that raises the question of why Chief for Change Superintendent Deborah Gist and her staff of Broad Academy administrators have produced such awful outcomes.
https://www.gkff.org/what-we-do/parent-engagement-early-education/prek-12-education/
After a series of community meeting, Gist recommended school closures designed to save $2 to 3 million. Gist also seeks $3 million in saving by increasing class sizes. Then, Gist proposed $13 to 14 million in cuts to district office administrators.
It’s great that most of the burden will be carried by the central office. But that raises the question why the district has such a well-funded administration.
Even though the Oklahoma press wouldn’t dare ask what the corporate reform-subsidized administration has accomplished, Tulsans should ask why the district in near the nation’s bottom in student performance from 3rd to 8th grades. Why does it have more emergency certified and inexperienced teachers than other districts after being awarded Gates Foundation “teacher quality” grants?
Participants in the recent community engagement process “were most willing to make budget reductions related to student transportation and bell times, teacher leadership opportunities, building utilization and district office services.” Perhaps as a repudiation of the Gates Foundation’s experiment, cutting teacher coaches was the recommendation that received the most votes. Tulsans were most protective of teacher pay, class sizes, and social-emotional learning and behavioral supports.
The fear is that closures and increased class sizes will result in more patrons leaving the district. Community participants also expressed concerns that closures will lead to more charter schools. The Tulsa World’s report on community meetings noted the worries of a parent, Wanda Coggburn:
Many shared Coggburn’s suspicion of a charter school taking over Jones or the other targeted elementary school buildings. But Gist said the needs of the six TPS-sponsored charter schools did not factor into the recommendation to close the schools.
The World also reported the fears of parents with disabilities. The parents of a child who has cerebral palsy and a developmental delay that causes behavioral issues say he was moved from a special education to a general education class against their wishes, and “they worry that adding more students would hinder his progress even further.”
Betty Casey of TulsaKids also describes the protests of parents whose deaf children attend Wright Elementary, which the superintendent wants to close. She talked with a mom who said of Wright:
She fears that it will be given to Collegiate Hall Academy, a charter school which currently shares space with Marshall Elementary. She wants her child to continue at Wright, not a charter school. She pointed out that Marshall has two gyms and a swimming pool currently not being used that could be put to use by public school students. Why not close College Bound Academy and put those students in Wright and Marshall? Closing a small charter school without a building would be much less disruptive.
https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/education/tulsa-s-jones-elementary-school-was-closed-once-before-and/article_2a08579f-2236-5bb8-b2a5-feb9db156682.html
https://www.tulsakids.com/where-does-tps-find-20-million/
Why would patrons have such fears? Maybe it’s because Gist responded to a question about a closed building saying “she’s confident the growing TPS-sponsored charter schools are interested in the potential space and are closely watching this process.”
I previously said that the traditional press hasn’t dared to investigate the results of corporate reform in Tulsa. However, Ms. Casey’s TulsaKids is a parents’ magazine that asks the questions that journalists have ducked. She recently wrote:
Why is it that when public schools are starved, and resources are stretched to the breaking point, that TPS is supporting a parallel school system of charters that drain more resources from the public schools? … The savings in closing schools is a drop in the bucket, but once the school is closed, it’s very difficult to go backward. Didn’t the superintendent say she was going to try to draw families back to TPS? Where will those returning families put their children? If Wright becomes a College Bound Charter, the families who wish to remain at a neighborhood school will have only one “choice” of a charter school.
Casey further explains:
I’m glad that Superintendent Gist has vowed to interview all the families leaving TPS. But, it seems a little late to wonder why people are leaving as they walk out the door. Why not work to create public schools that families love right now? …
Maybe it’s time to look at the “reforms” being implemented by the superintendent, and prior to that, Dr. Ballard’s acceptance of Gate’s Foundation money (MAP testing), and admit that those changes aren’t working for our kids, and families are leaving as a result.
“Deborah Gist and her staff of Broad Academy administrators”. That’s why…
yes
Why is education such a mess in so many red states? Right wing conservatives lead the way in these states where the objective is to destroy, not invest in, public education. Any community that values its public asset of public education would not hire one of these “off brand,” brain washed products of “reform.” It would likewise steer clear of Broadies, Chiefs for Change, or deform MBAs. There is a reason their is a different type of training for school leadership. A school district should not operate like a business. It is a public service that is part of the public trust.
Correction: The is a reason there is a different type of training….
It’s NOT Republicans. They are Globalist on the right and left.
Big cities are democratic in nature! If you look at Gist, Kaiser, Taylor (Lobeck-Taylor Foundation, Schuestman, and Broad, you have ALL BIG democrats. Conservatives tend to homeschool, and are not involved in public education.
I saw the writing on the wall when Gist was hired! I am a long-time Tulsan who ended up teaching in California. Broadies and Gates-type philosophies have butchered public education! I am disgusted that Tulsans have fallen for this bullsh*t as the disastrous results are now here.
The TPS System is apparently suffering from the lack of attention from the Administration of Betsy DeVos, an avowed advocate for the privatization of America’s Public School Systems, as are most Public School Systems throughout America.
Privatization of the Public School Systems have been up for negotiations for decades, driven by private entrepreneurs with profit motives, not in the best interest of educating student populations
These efforts of privatization – Private, Charter, Home Schooling etc., have increased ten fold under the direction of the current Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVoss, with the wholehearted support of the present Administration of D. Trump.
The allocation of tax payers funds are not being distributed where and how they are intended.
PRIVATE/CHARTER SCHOOLS expend an inordinate amount of State and Federal taxpayers funds allocated for Public School Expenses only are being spent illegally in media advertising facilities, curricula, soliciting students, political lobbyists atr all levels etc.
Public School Systems is under attack for not so pristine objectives.
Nice write up of the terible problems levied upon TPS families, teachers, snd staff. Superintendent Gist, Collegiate Hall Academy, and former superintendent Ballard (now a George Kaiser Family Foundation Endowed Professor of something!) deserve the national opprobrium.
But WHY are the charters moving in, and WHY is it that no one can seem to explain, let alone confront, a problem that’s been in the works for quite some time?
Why hasn’t Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum ever spoken up in defense of quality education for children and young people in our public schools? Because he’s bought in to the Aspen Institute and Results for America mindset that will help him to please the billionaires who will reward him for his loyalty by financing his national political ambitions.
The answer: Pay for Success contracts provide that hefty ROI (13%) that makes human data capital speculators salivate! StriveTogether, ImpactTulsa, Tulsa Regional Chamber, and their Billionaire backers are crippling TPS because they want the social-emotional data and predictive profiling capacity, the traumatized people who will become test subjects for the next PFS intervention, and the opportunity to train children to be whatever suits their financial and ideological fancy.
This is also tied especially to U.N. Agenda 21, and it won’t stop until every child has a digital tag, a comprehensive learner profile (social credit score), and is “on-ramped” to the pipeline to the low-wage, hamsterwheel-ish, augmented-transhumanism-reality workforce.
I respect Betty Casey. She has been an involved parent. journalist, and education writer for many years. I attended Ravitch workshops when I served on national education boards back in the day. Am now a 94 year old interested in learning as much as I can about a dramatically changed scene and learning about new forces. My tenure in the Tulsa public schools was glorious and my old age is filled with loving communication with former students who share with me. Student success from those I hear from is beyond my wildest dreams. What has happened? I was allowed freedom to innovate and involve students as a teacher and build a very fulfilling professional career of which I am immensely proud. What has happened ??
We are failing because we have taken God out of our schools, families and country. It’s really pretty simple.